A financial lesson learned....

[LeftHander]

I got to thinking about the bailout and the state of this financial crisis and it made me remember an important lesson from my childhood. One that has helped me throughout my life to live well, yet small and always have a roof, a job and the ability to enjoy life modestly.

I was 8 years old and I went to the carnival with what seemed like a fortune to me, $12.

I rushed to the midway because of rumors a game where you simply tossed a hoop over a post like peg to win the prize attached. The prize I wanted was a cassette recorder.

My first attempt, 3 throws for 50 cents fell short. With subsequent encouragement and training from the man running the game had me convinced that the task was easy and only required investing only a few dollars more to get a prize valued then at well over $60 dollars.



Then I dug deep into my pocket pulling crumpled dollar bills out of pocket throwing more and more hoops. All the while I kept receiving the same training over and over again, each time from the deeply concerned attendant who was a obvious expert at tossing them easily over the pegs.

At one point I felt I won with a hoop teetering on the top of the post. He said "No that is not a winner. It has to go all the way down the post." He showed me again how to do it again offer sage advice for confident young man. His toss was deft and the hoop slid over the post easily.

The smell of caramel apples, cotton candy, popcorn and grease along with the noise of people screaming and roar of generators for the nearby rides heightened my excitement and I again handed the man a crumpled bill.

I concentrated on the goal. But each time the light weight bamboo needle point hoop bounced wildly off the mark.

I reached into my pocket certain that I had a winner on the next toss. My hand came up empty. I quickly looked onto the ground, then in my other pockets. Panic started as my mind raced thinking about the rides and sweets I will not get.

Worse yet, the realization of my father scolding me for losing all my money to carnival game. I was crushed. Angry tears welled into my eyes and I screamed at the man who was smiling down at me. "You cheated me! You took all my money!", He said "Come back and play again you almost won. You can do it." In a soft consoling tone.

I walked back through the fair. Past the horse barn where our horses where. I walked past the cattle barn and saw my cousin washing his 4-H steer, laughing with friends and I was red faced, crying and deeply hurt. I ran the rest of the way to our camper.

From that day on I never again played games of chance with more money that I could afford to lose. I treated the games as they were entertainment and respected the ability of the carnival game to dupe people out of hard earned money.

We all have similar stories, most of us anyway.

America is facing this same experience. A lesson we all have learned at one point in our lives is seemingly forgotten. A hard lesson taught to us by people who don't really understand the importance of money to the poor and middle class.

America's elite wealth class does not understand what it is like to be robbed and be broke or to not have money.

These are the people making the recommendations to us. They are carnies on a grand scale and they are trying to free us of our last dollar, encouraging us, calming us and inciting us with fear and distraction.

The simply reality is most Americans have learned enough hard lessons about finance and I for one do not want to see us give our last dollars away because someone said it would be all right and we would come out a winner.

The old saying is very appropriate for these times.

"A fool and his money are easily parted."

These people are playing Congress and the American people for the fool again. Lets not satisfy their greed and ambition.

[screembloodymurder]

1. Great story!

K&R

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

2. Wall Street investment bankers: The carnies of the financial world

A very apt analogy.